USATourist Community

Hiya,

I'm a Brit planning to traverse North America in the next few months. I'll be flying into Seattle at the beginning of August and with a little luck flying home a couple of months later from New York. I've been reading everything I can, but there's no substitute for some frank advice if I can get it.

My route is windy. Ideally I would like to hit San Francisco first, then head right across country along an approximation of US Route 50, diving up into Canada briefly before arriving at the big apple. As near as I can work out that's going to fall not far short of five thousand miles. Being British, the sheer scale of America is difficult for me to quite get to grips with, but I figure that would take maybe two weeks of pretty serious driving. Allowing for enough time out of the car for the thing to be worthwhile, does two months sound like an achievable period to do it in?

My biggest concern is the business of organising a vehicle and getting it all legal. Being twenty-two, hiring a car for that long would be expensive on a scale best described as "horrific". I would also much rather pick my own vehicle - I can take the reliability and comfort hit. I've seen the buying a car plan heavily discouraged on this forum, but frankly I can't see another way, so I suppose my question is whether it is even possible. Not living in the country, it's difficult to get a feel for how much of the bureaucracy is deathly serious and how much of it is relatively circumventable. Not to mention the differing regulations from state to state. So...

Licenses. I have a full British license, and will acquire an International Driving Permit before leaving the UK. I am hoping that will be sufficient as far as the US authorities are concerned...?

Buying the car. I can't see finding one being any more trouble than it would be over here, but I don't fully understand the registration processes one has to go through after picking it up. Is this going to be a hell of a stumbling block? Do I really need a permanent address, or will the address of a friend or hostel do the job? It surprises me that there doesn't seem to be any provision for foriegn drivers wanting to do this. Assuming this actually can be done, can anyone estimate the timeframe?

Insurance. Should be possible but pricey, right? As a young driver I already pay extortionate car insurance over here, so I can deal with that.

Well, if anyone can shed any light on any of that I'd be exceptionally grateful. Useful links are always appreciated too. Thanks for reading!

If you have a valid Britsh driver's license, that is all you will need in the USA.  You do not need any international Driving Permit, nearly everyone will accept your British license.

Driving 5,000 miles in two weeks is pretty aggressive.  If you average 500 miles a day for ten days and take a few days off for rest, you can easily do it.  But 500 miles per day will mean spending about ten hours a day behind the steering wheel.  That could get rather boring quite quickly.

Buying a car is no problem.  There are plenty of cars available in all price ranges and in all sorts of condition.  Registering the car, so that you can legally drive it, can be difficult for a tourist. 

You will need a semi-permanent residence in the state where you are registering the car.  Typically, the state authorities will not accept, a post office box, a hotel, a mail drop or any such temporary address, nor will they accept a foreign address.  Car dealers and legitimate businesses are unlikely to allow you to use their address, because the penalties for filing false documents are not worth the risk.  Since 2001, when some of the World Trade Center bombers used false information to obtain legitimate driver's licenses, nearly every law enforcement agency has become very strict about this topic.

If you have a friend in the USA, that will allow you to use their home address as your semi-permanent residence, that might work.  You could possibly register the car in that state with their address as your semi-permanent US residence, and obtain license plates from the state.  Those license plates would be valid in all states.

Your are correct about the insurance,  Some insurers will refuse to cover any young driver.  Others will provide coverage at their normal exhorbitant young-driver rates. 

Thanks Mike, great response. Much appreciated.